What is a Lordosis?

Basically a lordosis is an excessive curvature of the back, sometimes called sway back. Why is this bad for you?

Structurally, this is like trying to load a spring, but it has too much stress in one area and bends too much. Or, if the spring is slightly misaligned in one spot, load will be taken in that part of the spring and eventually break.

This is what can happen in your back. Lack of good abdominal tone and too much back muscle tone can accentuate a lordosis. Some people are built this way naturally and need to work on more flexing of their spine to undo the lordosis. The problem with too much lordosis is increased compression on the smaller joints in the spine and gravity pulling the vertebrae down and fo

rward stressing your discs as well. This postural dysfunction can cause back pain or sciatic or even numbness in the legs. The longer you do not try to reduce a lordosis, the more risk you have for back pain.

So, if your teenager, mom, dad, husband, or friend has a swayback, now is the time to help them out by recommending physical therapy to teach them better posture and ways to safely strengthen their core to reduce their risk of back pain.